Week of April 24

Monday and Tuesday: Students will receive Sample Questions for the Grade 8 Florida Statewide Science Assessment. Yes, they should cube 2 the questions. Student who do not take Geometry may work on these during holding time along with other reviews provided by core subject teachers.

Tests are being returned so that students may make test corrections if desired. The sore strips should all be ready and distributed by 4A on Wednesday These may also be completed during holding. Geometry students should at least review their errors before the SSA which is May 2.

This week is the last check for on-time completion of the SSA review assignment. Be prepared to report your scores either on Wednesday - A day or Thursday - B day.  If your score is not complete on that day then I will accept late scores after the SSA. However, the idea is to finish before the SSA so that you do great on the test!

SSA is on Tuesday, May 2. Eat a good breakfast, it's a long test and you will need energy to get through the whole test in one day..

Upcoming events week of April 17.

• Life Science Benchmark Checkpoint- B Day April 17th/A Day April 18th

SSA READING (for real) Wednesday and Thursday.

Computers will not be available when other grades are using them for testing so work on your benchmarks and chapters at home if necessary. Remember, you want to be finished before the Science SSA on May 2.

Reccovering partial credit on the Benchmark Checkpoints

Anyone who scored less than 14/14 on the Nature of Science Checkpoint may complete test corrections and submit the test and the corrections by Thursday.  You may recover 1 point for each correctly answered question and an explanation of why you got it wrong and what the answer should be and why.

If you took Benchmark Checkpoint for Physical Science on time or on the make up day you will receive the questions and a score strip. The strip will tell you if you got the answer right or wrong - not  the correct answer.You may download the form from the Physical Science checkpoint in FOCUS. You may download it and print one out for each question you missed. These should be submitted no later than Thursday 4/20. Each correctly completed correction will be worth 3 recovery points.

Data has been collected from SSA Review Assignments and grades should be rising.

B day students submitted data today about how many chapters they have read and what percentage of their benchmarks have they remediated. Their input will be reflected in FOCUS as soon as I enter it.

A day will submit data  on Friday.

There will be a checkpoint next week. Refer to the earlier post that lists all the checkpoint dates.

You are encouraged to complete Benchmark Remediations in the form of guided notes at home so you can complete them.

Remember to read one chapter a day from the on-line book.

If you need time on-line, I will be tutoring on Monday from 3:15-4:15. Just go to the cafeteria until I pick you up.

Penda is still a home learning assignment each week.

WHAT ARE THESE ZEROS FOR THE CHAPTERS AND BENCHMARK REVIEWS???????

Ok, Time to relax. Roll you mouse over the assignments. See where it says these are interim grades that will be updated as progress is made?  Yes, that's the plan. The ZERO is to remind you about what you have reported now - before I have collected data. Your grade will increase after data is collected during the last class period of the week for your class. So, on Thursday I will pass out data charts to each B-day student. Each student  will tell me which chapters were read and will receive 5 pts. per chapter. Each student will also calculate what percentage of benchmarks have been remediated and that percentage will be entered. The same will happen for A day students on Friday. Next week, data will be collected from A day students on Thursday and B day students on Friday and each student who makes progress will see the scores grow. Anyone who is absent or doesn't report their data on time will need to be proactive the next class period.  I will also upload a file for the Check-in document so students may submit it straight to Focus each week as long as it is updated and uploaded on time.

Ok, see that's not so bad. By April 27 everyone will have had enough time to read the 18 chapters and remediate the benchmarks. If you need to work at home to complete the assignment, then that's what you should do. Be advised that these 2 assignments are the only classwork grades you will receive this month, so it's important that you do the work.

Daily Assignment- Don't fall behind if you are absent; get ahead if you have lots to do!

Go top Mr. Geary's blog.
Click on "SSA REVIEW MATERIALS" in the top banner.
The password is the same as the history password ;)
The top entry is the book you are to read for review purposes.

Each day you are to read, take notes, and complete the exercises for a chapter of the on-line review book Yes!!!!!!!!   EVERY DAY!! This means you have home learning everyday in addition to PENDA. On class days you can do this in class.

Then, in class you will refer to your Mock SSA data that you prepared and put into the data table. This is how you work on your individual assignments.  Complete one or more benchmarks each day.

You may/must do more benchmarks at home if you don't have enough class days to finish your individual review.

Some group and class lessons will address benchmarks that are common to several students in class.